


Negotiations

by lazilycoolllama



Series: Sci-Fi One Shots [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Based on a Tumblr Post, Humans are Space Terminators, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 06:30:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13452486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazilycoolllama/pseuds/lazilycoolllama
Summary: Roma Jang begins negotiations for a treaty with the Intergalactic Federation.





	Negotiations

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always great!

Roma fiddled with the translator in her hands, tracing the grooves and bumps. It was inherently foreign in her hands. From the moment it had landed in her hands, it had felt alien. Fitting, since it came from aliens.

She was sitting in a blank gray room, a stainless-steel table separating her from another chair and a door mirroring the one on her side. Light came a lamp hanging from the ceiling. It left nothing hidden in the small room, but still gave off an artificial and cold atmosphere. Behind her stood a human guard. He wore protective gear, but carried no weapons. This was simply negotiations. No need for a show of force. Besides, they were on her ship. If things went south, she would only have to step out of the door to find a suitable weapon.  

The door facing her slide open, revealing several aliens all wearing the same grayish uniform. Roma took in all the details she could about these creatures. One was tall and covered in a dense dark orange fur. Tusks protruded from its mouth, and its eyes were sharp and yellow, like a hawk. Another was more snake-like than humanoid. Its lower half was completely serpentine, and its skin was patterned with gray and black scales. Its tongue flicked, tasting the air. The last one was hauntingly human. The only irregularity were the solid black eyes, razor sharp fangs, and arms that hung a little to long.    

The last one sat across from Roma, extending a hand in greeting. “I am Izzuj. I will be representing the Federation in the negotiations.”

It was like seeing a childs drawing come to life. Proportions slightly off, and small differences that you could overlook but were so obvious once you saw them. He was attempting human mannerisms that felt forced and fake. It was like someone had stepped into a human meat suit and was trying to learn how to control it.

Roma took his hand. His skin was cold. “I am Roma Jang. I am the official ambassador for the Terran Fleet. I presume that you also have a translator?”

Izzuj retracted his hand, then held up a similar device to the one in Roma’s hands. It was almost completely the same, except his looked more worn.

“Before we begin,” Roma said. “This device that you have provided us is 100% effective at translating and understanding languages, correct?”

He nodded, and Roma felt a chill run up the back of her spine. She suspected that they had learned the human mannerisms to make them feel more comfortable, but was disturbing. It was like watching a marionette. It looked real, but there was an underlying feeling of fake. Izzuj looked human, but he acted like a child discovering how his limbs worked. It was unsettling.

Scary even.

“With the exception of only a few species, it is extremely effective. Anything it cannot translate is usually smoothed over easily,” Izzuj said, his voice dripping with pride.

“One or two. That’s… interesting,” Roma said carefully.

Izzuj blinked, but there were two eyelids and one pair came from the sides. It was a clear indicator he wasn’t human, and behind her Roma heard the guard swear under his breath.

“Have you found something it cannot translate?” Izzuj asked.

Roma huffed. It had been an accident. In a meeting only a few hours ago, they had been discussing simple strategies when the thing had gone off. Scared the shit out of them. With a few simple tests, they had discovered quite a few strange words that the translator did not know.

“Sort of,” Roma said. “Mind humoring me for a minute?”

Izzuj nodded, and again Roma was reminded of a puppet. It was jerky, like someone cut one of his strings. “Of course. It sometimes takes years for a new species to join the Federation. Any way to accommodate you shall be of high priority.”

“Great, this shouldn’t take much time then.” Roma set the device on the table. “As I mentioned, we found some… issues with the device. Allow me to demonstrate: Espionage.”

The device’s grooves turned red and emitted a loud _BEEP._ “ERROR: NO TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.”

Izzuj looked confused, “Yes, there is always one or two words that cannot be perfectly translated.”

Roma held up a finger, and Izzuj froze. “Reverse engineering.”

“ERROR: NO TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.”

“Spycraft.”

“ERROR: NO TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.”

“Overwhelming force.”

“ERRO—”

“Scorched Earth.”

“ER—”

“Kamikaze.”

“E—”

“Blizkrieg. Stealth. Mutually Assured Destruction. Suicide. Acceptable Losses. Pyrrhic Victory. Siege. Guerilla Warfare. Entrenchment. Encirclement. Genocide. Massacre. Martyr.”

Over and over again the device turned red and said, “ERROR: NO TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.” With each untranslated word, Izzuj became more and more confused. Roma watched carefully as the other two aliens shifted uncomfortable. They probably had never met a species whose language hadn’t been able to be translated. It was almost funny.

Pausing, Roma stared directly into Izzuj’s inky black eyes. She was curious to see his reaction to the next word.

“Xenocide.”

There was a sharp _screech_ as Izzuj’s chair slide back. He jumped to his feet, the other two aliens also jolting in surprise. Something similar to fear flashed across his face, and Roma smiled. His body was tense, and he pointed with a wavering finger at her. She couldn’t really blame him. How else would someone respond to finding out their next-door neighbor was a dangerous criminal?

She was reminded of watching those old superhero movies with her grandparents. When she had been young, her favorite had been Wonder Woman. She had grown up wanting to be just like her. Looking into Izzuj’s black eyes, she wondered if she had grown up to be Aries. It would be fitting. She could only imagine that Izzuj was feeling like the superheroes did when they discovered they had been working with the villains. Not a perfect analogue, since this was real life and Roma and Izzuj were neither hero nor villain, but it was suitable.

“What… why do you have a word for… what was all of that just now? What were you saying?”         

Roma chuckled softly. His reaction had been pretty good. She gestured to the chair, encouraging him to sit, which he did. “We were also confused about that, so we took a look into the information you sent along to us. Tell me, why are all the beings in the Federation carnivores?”

“Contact is made after the sapient races have made it to multiple worlds. The Federation has never found a sapient herbivorous species which failed to destroy themselves in resource wars and aggressive action. We’ve never found herbivores that even managed to make it off their home planet.”

Roma leaned forwards, steepling her fingers and grinning. Izzuj shivered, and Roma was reminded that many carnivorous species viewed baring teeth as a threat. How humans managed to turn it into a friendly gesture was beyond her.

“And off all the species that have joined the Federation, while using threat displays, don’t waste resources on wars they cannot win, correct?”

“Wasted resources means decreased likelihood of survival,” Izzuj said. “Herbivores constantly waste resources on aggression, or on movement. They have more offspring than will possibly survive. Over and over again, the Federation has seen that they die for it. Their inherent aggression is their own demise.”

Roma shrugged, taking her holo-tablet from the bag hanging from her chair. She set it on the table, tapping a few commands into the computer. Reaching her files, she turned to Izzuj who was blinking rapidly.

“Indeed, it is. Now back to the matter at hand. I’ll ask you before we continue; what can you offer humanity in return for joining your Federation?”

Izzuj sputtered. He looked offended. Maybe he didn’t see where this was going, but that didn’t matter much. It mattered about as much as an anonymous complaint mattered to a corporation. Which is to say, it didn’t matter at all.

“We have already sent our offer,” Izzuj exclaimed. “You have seen it, surely.”

“Of course, I have. I’m the ambassador,” Roma leaned forwards, stilling scrolling through her holo-tablet with one practiced finger. “I am asking what you have to offer. It’s a simple question, Izzuj.”

“I… I’m not sure…” Izzuj stuttered.

Roma sighed, “May I display some files for you? I think it may be informative, especially if you do not know our history.”

Izzuj hesitantly nodded, “I suppose.”

Clicking on a file, she launched it onto a screen that projected itself between them. It was old, grainy, and taken by hand from an aircraft far above a city. Far below a city disappeared into an explosion. The cloud of fire, smoke, and debris bloomed into the mushroom cloud that even a child could recognize. In the corner of the screen, the words _Hiroshima_ were displayed.

“What is this?” Izzuj demanded. “You are using weapons of that scale upon a populated city? How recent was this?”

Roma closed the file and moved onto the next one, “A few centuries ago. Prior to our invention of spaceflight. This was the end to a much larger conflict that we called World War Two. A relatively minor example of ‘overwhelming conflict.’”

“ERROR: NO—”

“Oh, shut up,” Roma snapped. She opened her next file. A series of diagrams, graphs, and pictures were displayed. They showed everything from resources, maps, battles plans, and death tolls. Annotations on the tactical value of this, the emotional value of that, were interspersed throughout. The main attraction was the image of an apartment building with the accompanying notes on sniping from the roof and support via tunnels. In the corner, again, labeled the entire affair as the _Battle of Stalingrad._

“What… what purpose would that…” Izzuj’s eyes flicked from image to graph. His brain trying to decipher why. Roma watched him, and almost felt sorry for him. He was experiencing humanity at its worst. Even now that he had dropped human body language, fear seemed to be a commonality between them.

“Because Stalingrad was an advantageous location, and the people who died there were considered ‘acceptable losses.’”

“ERROR: NO TRANSLATION AVAILABLE.”

Again, she pulled up another file. This one labeled _General Sherman’s March to the Sea._ Images of destroyed railroads, fields left barren, towns razed, and the broken people left behind covered the holo-screen.

“So much waste…” Izzuj muttered.

“It was intentional,” Roma said. Glancing at the images herself, she couldn’t help but agree, even if she knew that that strategy was extolled as one of the reasons the war ended the way it did. Now, that kind of thing would be considered morally reprehensible. A war crime even. But it wasn’t always, and Roma couldn’t deny it.

Izzuj stared at her, making a nervous chitter in the back of his throat. “But why?”

“It rendered the enemy unable to use resources. If the enemy has nothing to fight back with, then they can’t fight.”

She clicked on yet another file. Images of Native Americans, forced to leave their homes, were shown. Detailed reports were also shown. In the corner were the words _Trail of Tears._ The horrible conditions, the bloody footprints, everything was shown.

Izzuj seemed at a loss for words.

Another file, showing a rather recent skirmish in Russia. Another showing the _Bangladesh Genocide._ Another showing the _Holodomor._ With each file, Roma saw the aliens grow more and more confused, afraid, and nervous. Good.

“And finally,” Roma said, clicking on her last file. “RTS Games.”

Videos began popping up. Images of everything from open space to deep ocean, from early history to far future. Largely battles. Battles across time and space. Monsters that only existed in stories fighting against heroes. Aliens that had been made on a computer fighting against explorers. Normal people, pitted against each other in battles to the death. Everything humanity could think of.

“This is impossible!” Izzuj got to his feet, pointing accusatorily at the images. “This is far too advanced. I have never seen military tactical simulations of this level! This is higher than anything I’ve seen, or even heard of.”

Roma laughed, closing all the videos and closing the holo-screen until it was just Izzuj staring back into her own eyes. As creepy and unsettling as he was to her, she was fairly certain that she scared him more. At this point, she didn’t care much. They should be scared if he couldn’t handle this.

“No,” She said, lacing her fingers before her. “They aren’t. Those are games. Toys that we give to our children. They are for fun. And many of those are a couple hundred years out of date. From what I have seen, nearly every human on Earth capable of coherent speech is capable of tactically overwhelming your Federation.”

She ignored the beeping translator, smiling pleasantly at the aliens. The furred and scaled aliens behind Izzuj shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. She had them right where she wanted them. “We are already in space. You can’t stop us,” She reminded him. “It’s to late to say no. So, I will ask again.”

Izzuj’s eyes widened in fear as she repeated her question.

“What do have to offer us?”

**Author's Note:**

> This was based off a tumblr post I saw at 2 am and proceeded to hammer out in a few hours. It was really fun to write though


End file.
